By Daniel J. Benor, MD

When you have changed the thought that triggered the emotion that caused the aches, then keep it changed. When you throw out the garbage, don’t go fingering into it for bits around which to build your next meal. We do just that when we “dig up” those old hurts and fears and wallow in the miseries of the past. “Let the dead past bury its dead” while you go on to new glories.
                      – Alice Steadman

The good news is that changes people experience when using TWR can be Transformative. The bad news is that people may feel a measure of overwhelm because the changes are so rapid and so deep.

TWR very quickly releases negativity. It enables you to install positive thoughts and feelings –replacing whatever you’ve let go of. Some people are slightly disoriented when they actually succeed in doing what they came to do.

With anxieties where the consequences of overwhelm could be seriously incapacitating or dangerous, telephone support with TWR is highly effective.

Donna was struggling with exam anxieties in her second term in university. While she had breezed through high school on her high intelligence, she felt challenged to keep up with her classmates in university, due to the higher academic demands and to being among a select group at a much higher level of educational institution.

After a 15 minute series of TWR exercises, she no longer felt worried when she thought about studying for her exams, taking the exams or fretting over what grade she would get. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to study for and to take her next American history exam that was approaching in two weeks. But instead of being pleased at being free of her test anxieties, she was now anxious because she was no longer anxious.

These sorts of worries are very common. They are easily addressed by installing counteracting positive cognitions. Donna did a few rounds of Replacement Positive TWR statements on: “I see myself approaching my studies with confidence, competence and pleasure.” and “I see myself looking back on my previous test anxieties as a thing of the past.”

Sid had had similar test anxieties all of his life. He could not recall exactly when it had started, but couldn’t recall being a student free of such fears. With only twenty minutes of TWR found himself completely free of them. He became anxious that without his anxieties he would be unable to study as diligently or as well. His response was equally rapid when he used TWR on these meta-anxieties (anxieties about anxieties).

He phoned me several weeks later to report that his anxieties were now much more manageable. He no longer was so agitated when taking exams that he couldn’t recall much of the material he had studied. However, he kept worrying that he wasn’t studying as hard as he could and would not get the best grades he could achieve.

In another TWR session, these new anxieties responded only partially to TWR. His Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) did not decrease past a 4 out of 10. Routine unblocking approaches did not help. When I inquired again at this point about Sid’s earliest memory of test anxiety, he was surprised to recall his teacher shaming him publicly in first grade for having missed several easy items on a spelling test. Clearing the negative associations in these memories with TWR, Sid found himself completely and permanently free of all aspects of his exam anxieties.

Sid was one of my early clients who taught me about clearing early memories as a boost to dealing thoroughly with current life issues. I routinely look for these now, and routinely invite people to clear the early memories along with the current ones.

Ted had had a serious auto accident in which an oncoming driver crossed the dividing line on a highway, hitting Ted’s car as he swerved to avoid the collision. Ted’s car was thrown off the road and rolled over several times, landing upside down in the ditch. The air bags and seat belt protected him well. He was shaken up and had a minor whiplash injury but recovered within a few days. The other driver was taken to the hospital unconscious and died a day later.

Ted was highly anxious when he had to drive on a highway after that trauma. Anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications did not help, and he didn’t like their side effects. His wife took over driving when they did any long distance driving, but Ted could see he would inevitably have difficulties at some point when she would not be available and his work would require that he travel to nearby towns, as it occasionally did.

Ted was able to release his fears of driving completely after half an hour of using TWR. However, he was anxious that his fears would return when he actually had to drive on a highway. He accepted my suggestion that he could have his next session over the phone, after driving his car to a highway at a time we both agreed upon. If he became anxious, he was to pull over and I would guide him over his cell phone in using TWR to release any recurrent fears.

To his pleasant surprise, no such fears recurred when he went for his test drive on the highway, then or in the six years that he remained in contact with me.

My meta-positive lessons with TWR, based on numerous success stories such as the above, have helped me to see that there is very rarely an issue that will fail to clear with TWR.

You may reproduce all or parts of this article in your journal, magazine, ezine, blog or other web or paper publication on condition that you credit the source as follows: Copyright © 2013 Daniel J. Benor, MD, ABHM   All rights reserved. Original publication at WholisticHealingResearch.com where you will find many more related articles on this and similar subjects of wholistic healing.